


and i'll sail a thousand ships to you

by swallows (toska)



Category: Gatchaman Crowds
Genre: (i'm sorry it came with the mermaid thing), (leave me i wrote this late into the night with terrible inspiration crying about cute love stories), Alternate Universe - Fantasy, F/F, Out of Character, mermaid au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-31
Updated: 2013-10-31
Packaged: 2017-12-31 01:08:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1025542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/toska/pseuds/swallows
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>mermaid au — hajime; utsutsu and the thousand paper cranes between them</p>
            </blockquote>





	and i'll sail a thousand ships to you

**Author's Note:**

  * For [R_Vienna](https://archiveofourown.org/users/R_Vienna/gifts).



> angie happy birthday!!!! i guess you could say this is the surprise fic i worked on for you late into the night because i had to write you something!!!! i'm a bit rusty with fanfiction right now and i'm experimenting with dialogue, but i hope you enjoyed this and i hope you have a fantastic day and a wonderful year, mermaid girl. 
> 
> also special thanks to maca: for giving me to motivation and encouragement for this
> 
> special thanks: to the Killers because their songs are inspiration

**and i’ll sail a thousand ships to you**  
— hajime; utsutsu and the thousand paper cranes between them

 

.

 

She’s never met anyone quite like her before— Hajime Ichinose was quite an enigma and to be honest, Utsutsu wasn’t quite fond of her to begin with.  Hajime is different, for one she has legs. Two long legs, with knobby knees that she likes to keep tucked in under her chin as she glances down at her. “Utsutsu – chan!”  She exclaims with a smile. “Good morning!”

 

Utsutsu only nods in response, she’s never been quite certain what to say to the girl. From her experience, it’s just better to let her do the talking. It’s easier that way. Sugane lectures her about it sometime, but she wonders what he knows? He’s just a human. Some self-proclaimed protector of the sea, she thinks. Hajime, though? She’s not sure about her at all. She’s human, like Sugane.

 

But there is something different about her.

 

.

 

“U-tsu-tsu – chan!” Hajime explains, waving her hand to grab her attention. Utsutsu looks up again.  Only to find Hajime lying on the rocky surface, seeing them face-to-face. “Morning sleepyhead,” Hajime giggles, propping herself up with her arms and with her legs kicking the air.

 

“I’m so gloomy,” she says in response. Hajime grabs her hand in response and Utsutsu can’t help that flinch that emulates from her. Hajime didn’t notice, and begins to trace the crevices of her palms, absentmindedly.

 

“No, I don’t think you are gloomy at all! I think you are just tired.” 

 

Utsutsu shivers again, but this time she’s quite certain it has to do with the bright look in Hajime’s eyes and the warm feeling of her skin on hers.

 

.

 

“What’s it like, being a mermaid?” Hajime asks one day, kicking her feet in the water absentmindedly. Unlike her legs, her eyes were focused. Her eyes were an earnest honey brown, much softer than her gold eyes. Hajime doesn’t repeat the question again, and Utstsu finds herself struggling to answer. Luckily she doesn’t have to.

 

“It’s like being human, just wetter, Hajime-chan!” O.D laughs.

 

Hajime laughs with him. “Maybe for you O.D! But I want to know what Utsutsu-chan thinks!”

 

“I’m gloomy.”

 

Hajime just laughs, and Utsutsu can’t help but think that Hajime already knows the answer to that question.

 

.

 

It’s just the two of them together again. “Utsutsu-chan, here you go!!!”

 

Utsutsu blinks. “What is it?”

 

Hajime laughs, “It’s origami paper! I bought it for you, I thought we could make paper cranes together!”

 

“Paper cranes?”

 

O.D swims towards them, “Utsutsu, you never heard of the legend have you? That if you make a thousand paper cranes, your wish will come true.”

 

Hajime looks at him, eyes flickering with interest. “You know the legend O.D?”

 

O.D nods in response. “Mhmm!!! I’ve done it before, Hajime-chan!”

 

“What did you wish for?” Both O.D and Hajime look at her in surprise, and truthfully she’s surprised at how earnest her voice sounds.

 

“To become a merman,” O.D laughs and Utsutsu doesn’t know what to say to that. Instead she takes the paper and starts to fold.

 

“Ah!!! Utsutsu-chan wait, I didn’t show you to do it!” Hajime laughs and as Utsutsu begins to smooth the paper out against the rock, she decides that she has a wish ready.

 

 _I wish to become human._ She thinks, more certain than ever.

 

.

 

“I think that the sea encompasses the whole universe,” she says. 

 

“What’s that supposed to mean, kid?” Paiman asks, as he takes another swing of beer.

 

“It’s amazing, the sea!!!” Hajime exclaims, swinging him around, ignoring his protests that consist of “Hey newbie what do you think you are doing!” and “Put me down brat!” and after a moment, finally places him down.

 

“Don’t you see Pai-Pai!!!! Even though sea is a refelction of everything and it still manages to have a whole world in it! It may not be big rockets—” at this point, she’s imitating the motion of plane, “or many planets, but it’s got a world all it’s own! And it’s right here.”

 

She kneels down and flicks the water at Sugane playfully, smiling at his scowl. “And we get it closer to it every single day!”

 

“I think you are wrong Hajime-chan! With a  smile like that you encompass the whole universe!” O.D laughs.

 

Utsutsu finds herself silently agreeing with him. She finds herself yearning for Hajime’s hand.

 

.

 

During the times when Hajime isn’t there with her, Utsutsu finds herself swimming into the ocean, weaving through sunken ships and exploring coral reefs. Tiny fish nuzzle at her tail and she wonders if it would still tickle if she had legs. Long, knobby human legs.

 

Like Hajime’s.

 

She looks up at the sunlight shining through the water. _“What’s it like, being a mermaid?”_ The question rebounds in her head, and she continues to swim back toward shore.

 

 _It ‘s okay, Hajime-san. Being a mermaid is okay. But then I met you and now it’s kind of lonely when you are gone._ She thinks. 

 

From the corner of her eye she sees Hajime running towards her in a distance, and Utsutsu outstretches her arms and waves.  Hajime returns the greeting with a smile all her own, carrying a gray box. “For the cranes,” she explains, noting the inquisitive look in Utsutsu’s eyes.

 

“Ready to make some more?” Hajime asks.

 

Utsutsu dips her head in agreement, hiding her small smile.

 

_When I’m with you Hajime-chan, it’s different. It isn’t gloomy at all._

.

 

It’s getting harder and harder for Utsutsu to like Sugane now. She has always been indifferent to the boy, who has this habit of following Joe-san like a lost turtle.  But seeing Hajime’s hand entwined with his tended to send her one edge a bit. But Sugane isn’t as bad as _Rui-kun_.

 

Rui-san is nice, she supposes. And she notices the way his eyes are leaving his phone, GALAX, she thinks its called and going towards Hajime’s eyes. They were kind eyes, sharp and focused on the destination.

 

She wonders if Rui-san ever got to know what those eyes are searching for and where those eyes were going to take Hajime.

 

.

 

She looks at the box, Hajime had tucked in an alcove, hidden away especially for her and starts to fold more cranes.

 

There used to be a thousand cranes between them, she thinks. But now it’s just a two-hundred.

 

.

 

It was honestly no one’s fault when the box fell into the water, Utsutsu knew. But that didn’t stop her from disappearing far from shore that evening, trying to collect every soggy piece of paper in sight.

 

 _“Utsutsu-chan!”_ O.D says, his voice resonating in her mind. _“Hajime-chan is looking for you, she seems quite worried! Come back here!”_

 

Utsutsu shook her head _,  “No, no, no, no, no, no.”_ She thinks, as her swimming becomes more frantic, searching for papers that are nowhere in sight. (A part of her knows they are nowhere to be found, that they have probably turned into wet mush, decomposing in the depths of the sea, but she can’t find it in her stop searching. After all, it was only a few more cranes left. A hundred cranes lay between her fin and legs. A hundred cranes and Hajime would be hers).

 

.

 

The next thing she knows, she’s in the usual spot again, the spot where Hajime usually comes, with her knees tucked under her chin. The spot where Hajime laid, teaching her how to make paper cranes. Where she instructed her about the box and how to keep it safe.

 

“Utsutsu-chan!!!!” Hajime yells, beaming a bright smile and she jumps into the water, ignoring the protests of the others. O.D laughs and tells everyone to let her be and she wonders if anyone else noticed the smirk on O.D’s face, when he said how Hajime would be good for her.

 

She finds herself to be quite flustered.

 

“I’m sorry,” she says at last. “The cranes—”

 

Hajime puts a finger to her lips and Utsutsu finds herself shades darker. “Don’t worry about the cranes U-tsu-tsu – chan!” She exclaims. “The only thing that matters is you!!! Don’t you see Utsutsu-chan, that it was never about the cranes?”

 

She finds herself blinking and suddenly it’s like their first months together. And she wonders what’s changed between them. She wonders if she was just foolish and Hajime was just being kind. Because if she looks closely, she could see her eyes in Sugane’s eyes, in Rui’s eyes, Pai-Pai’s eyes, Jo’s eyes and even O.D’s eyes.

 

But most surprisingly she sees it in Hajime’s eyes, as well.

 

It’s love.

 

.

 

(She never did turn into a human, with the knobby, coltish legs that Hajime had. Hajime never turned into a mermaid either. But somehow, the cranes that once bridged their gap closer and closer didn’t mean a thing anymore. The cranes weren’t their bond, but they signified their bond— she realizes. And late at night, she wonders if the sea holds worlds of its own, where 900 cranes fly by. 

 

And somewhere in that other world, there is a kiss. And two human girls with their own story and own creatures of legends. Gatchamans, she calls them)

**Author's Note:**

> oH MY GOSH ITS FINALLY DONE. IT'S 1:35 AM AND IM SO HAPPY THIS IS DONE. I'm sorry this is kind of sloppy and some things didn't follow through, hopefully I can improve on this soon! But i really wanted to get this done for your birthday and for you to see as soon as possible, haha!!!!
> 
> also special thanks to maca- who convinced me that mermaids were the way to go and dealt with my pokemon puns and this whole writing process.


End file.
